National Express is reported to be taking 600 buses from Alexander Dennis in a deal worth £100 million over the next five years.
The contract follows January’s announced from Firstgroup that it was making its biggest order of 426 vehicles in contracts worth a total of £70 million.
The National Express deal for single and double-deckers will see the first 100 buses delivered by Alexander Dennis in 2014, BBC news reports, with another 125 each year between 2015 and 2018.
Peter Coates, Managing Director of National Express UK Bus, said, “This multi-year contract represents a major step forward in terms of revitalising our bus fleets – and in the way we do business.
“By working exclusively with ADL we can harness the vast wealth of knowledge within our various engineering teams, improve vehicle reliability and performance, and give our customers better service.
“In parallel with this, we have clear visibility in terms of costs, planning and vehicle replacement programmes, as well as the opportunity to work with and to influence ADL in the way they design and engineer the vehicles of the future.”
ADL Chief Executive Colin Robertson said his company was delighted to take its business relationship with National Express “to a new level”.
“Multi-year contracts make so much sense for everyone involved. They give both parties a clear profile of expectations, forward build programmes and financials.
“An added bonus is that they release our best and brightest people, on both sides, to pursue new business growth opportunities, rather than being locked into months of repetitive tender negotiations annually.
“My instinct is that in the years ahead we will see changes in the way we do business and more ‘partnerships’ of this nature developing in the bus industry.”
